Now that the true cost of global warming is evident in lost livelihoods and rising sea-levels, the tide is starting to turn and Africa, Steiner says, leads the green energy charge.
“One of my most happy moments was to see how Africa came together in preparation for Paris and prepared the Africa Renewable energy initiative in order to double it on the continent over the next four years and then go to 300 Giga Watts by the year 2030.”
And that’s what the smart money, he says, is on, “Over 10 billion dollars was pledged in Paris to assist Africa in doubling its renewable energy. Last year, more than half of all investments in new electricity or power generating infrastructure was renewable. More than oil, gas, coal and nuclear combined. Now nobody would have thought that would have been possible 10 years ago.”
It’s green energy and not necessarily the discovery and exploitation of ‘black gold’, he’s convinced, that will enable Africa to leapfrog into the developed world.
“The vast majority of Nigerians to this day have not been connected to the grid despite it being a country that has a lot of oil. So the traditional approach has not been a singular success. The green energy revolution is actually Africa’s shortcut to access to energy.”
– A walking nation –
Erik Solheim takes over from Steiner 10 years after he got off a plane at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport the newly appointed Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
Ten years later he remembers the drive from the airport; the early morning rain and the tens of Kenyans he met as they, presumably, walked to their places of employment.
A decade later there are many more cars on the road and it stands to reason, higher carbon emissions but Steiner’s eyes, even as he exits UNEP, remain firmly on the prize; the prize being harmony between man and nature.
And while the effects of global warming are no longer a far off, abstract concept but so real that the change in climate now has the world, offenders in tow, scrambling to get its house in order, Steiner’s is not a gospel of doom.
When I asked Steiner two years ago whether he felt like he was fighting a losing battle, he said his faith in humanity was sustained by persons such as the late Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai who proved that it is indeed possible for an individual to change the world and he’s yet to lose faith.
“Environmental issues are the problems of our time but we’re also increasingly providers of solutions whether it’s in the renewable energy sphere or link between wildlife and tourism. We have many of the solutions. Provide scientific and technical advice that is not only focused on problems,” is his rallying call.
And taking his own advice, Steiner will in September take on the role of the Director of the Oxford Martin School; dismissing speculation that he had wanted to succeed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
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